Subject: FDA Now Formally Allows Personal-Use Drug Imports
Date: Published: 7/25/88 32 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   FDA Now Formally Allows
   Personal-Use Drug Imports

   WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration has decided
to formally allow Americans to import for personal use small
quantities of medications that aren't approved for sale in
the U. S. 
   FDA Commissioner Frank Young announced the policy at a
conference on AIDS in Boston.
   The agency has been under fire for not moving faster to
approve the use of new drugs, especially for treatment of
AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.  Dr. Young said the
change will formally recognize what has been an informal
policy for years, that unapproved drugs made in other
countries may be imported by those who plan to use them.  He
said the FDA will allow shipments of a three-month supply of
such drugs.
   In an interview yesterday, Dr. Young said the FDA would
release its own views on the safety and effectiveness of AIDS
treatments that don't have U. S. approval.  But he said "it's
important not to rob hope from individuals" who want to try
unproven drugs.

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